The final score read Charlotte 81, Fordham 75. But it wasn’t a six-point game. It was a game of threes. And Charlotte won that game too, hitting 13 of its 20 three-point field goal attempts while Fordham was 11-for-26 from behind the arch as the Rams suffered their first Atlantic 10 loss in the Rose Hill Gym this year. The loss drops Fordham to 12-13 overall, 7-5 in the conference, while Charlotte improves to 16-9 overall, 9-3 in the A-10.

In the first nationally televised game ever in the Rose Hill Gym, the Rams and their fans gave the ESPN audience a reason to watch, with the noise in the Rose Hill Gym reaching epic proportions at many points throughout the game. The sellout crowd, Fordham’s first of the season, was treated to a classic Atlantic 10 game, with three lead changes in the second half and a 23-point, 10-rebound effort from Bryant Dunston, his eighth double-double of the year.

But it was a career-high 29 points from Charlotte’s Marcus Bennett, who almost doubled his previous career-high of 15, which proved to be the difference in the game.

“I’m very proud of my guys who hung in there and gave us a chance against a very good basketball team,” said Fordham head coach Dereck Whittenburg. “In the end we made a couple of defensive mistakes but I have to give credit to Marcus Bennett who hit some timely shots for them, some of them with a hand in his face.”

The Rams led 34-28 at the half, thanks to 16 first-half points from Dunston and 11 from Marcus Stout as Fordham shot 54.5% (6-11) from three-point land.

A three-pointer from Jermaine Anderson 1:21 into the second half gave Fordham a nine-point lead, 37-28, before the 49ers used a 9-2 run to make it a two-point game, 39-37, on a Curtis Withers three-pointer with 16:07 remaining.

Lay-ups from Dunston and Jermaine Anderson over the next 38 seconds helped the Rams build the lead back to six, 48-42, but Charlotte responded with three straight three-pointers, two from Bennett, to take its first lead of the day, 51-48, with 11:13 left in the game.

The 49ers would get the lead to five, 54-49, following another Bennett trifecta a minute later, when the Rams went on a 7-2 run to tie the game at 56 on a Jermaine Anderson three-pointer with 8:26 remaining.

Later in the period, De’Angelo Alexander tied the game for a third time in the half at 61 with a three-pointer with 5:12 left and Bennett would convert a lay-up 38 seconds later to give the 49ers the lead for good, 63-61.

Charlotte would build the lead to as many as nine, 73-64, with 1:18 left but the Rams wouldn’t back down, cutting the deficit to four, 75-71, 44 seconds later but Fordham would get no closer.

Fordham opened the game hot, jumping out to a 15-6 lead 4:35 into the contest, hitting five three-pointers, two each from Dunston and Marcus Stout.

The Rams would get the lead up to as many as 11, 19-8, with 11:24 left in the half before the 49ers began to whittle away, eventually cutting it to six, 27-21, on a Chris Nance jumper with 5:41 remaining in the period.

A Stout jumper and a Dunston lay-up put the Fordham lead back at ten, 31-21, 1:20 later but Charlotte outscored Fordham 7-3 over the final 2:40 to cut the Rams’ halftime lead to six, 34-28.

Jermaine Anderson finished with 21 points for Fordham, hitting four three-pointers, while Stout added 16 points, also connecting on four three-pointers, and Sebastian Greene finished with ten points and four rebounds.

Withers added 15 points and 12 rebounds for the 49ers while Alexander (11) and Nance (10) also finished in double figures.

The Rams will next be in action on Wednesday, February 22nd as they travel to Philadelphia to face the Saint Joseph’s University Hawks in an Atlantic 10 game at 7:00 p.m.

Notes
The loss drops Fordham’s record in the Rose Hill Gym to 7-3 overall, 5-1 in Atlantic 10 games…The 21 points scored by Jermaine Anderson brings his career total to 1,091, moving him into 21st place on the Fordham all-time scoring list…The eight double-doubles matches Bryant Dunston’s double-double total from last year…Charlotte’s Maurice Bennett and Fordham’s Marcus Stout were teammate at Renaissance High School in Michigan…The game was only the second meeting between Fordham and Charlotte, who joined the Atlantic 10 this year…Charlotte won the first match-up, 89-75, in Raleigh, North Carolina on November 17, 2000 in the first round of the CoSIDA Classic…The game marked the return to the Rose Hill Gym of two former WFUV announcers, Tony Reali and Spero Dedes who were on during the pre-game show and who took over the microphones for a while in the second half…Reali, a 2000 Fordham University graduate, is the host of ESPN’s Around the Horn, while Dedes, a 2001 Fordham graduate, serves as the play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Lakers.